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Archive for the ‘training for managers’ Category

How Much Coaching Is Enough? Determining the Proper Length and Frequency When Coaching Your Team to Drive Measurable Results

Aug 5, 2010 How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, training for managers


A.B.C. – Always Be Coaching. For managers, this is the expectation and the new standard in how you communicate with your people if you’re looking to drive the long term positive changes you need within your team. Coaching is actually something you will be doing in every conversation and interaction you have; whether via email, during a telephone conversation, a water cooler discussion, impromptu coaching when dealing with a timely question or pressing challenge, during a deal or forecasting review, even during a team meeting.

However, when it comes to determining the frequency of your scheduled one-to-one coaching sessions with each person on your team, there are several factors to consider, including the size of your team as well as the performance level of each person.

There are several factors that could determine the frequency of your meetings and one-to-one coaching sessions with each person on your team. First, how many people do you have on your team? If you have a team of five or ten people, it’s much easier to manage your time and your schedule to accommodate weekly one-to-one hour long meetings.

A larger team is more of a challenge due to time constraints as well as your additional responsibilities. While group or team coaching is also an option to fill in some gaps, there is still no substitute for providing individualized attention. For larger teams, I suggest a minimum of two individualized hour long scheduled coaching sessions per month for each member of your team, even though weekly one-to-one hour long coaching sessions would be ideal. Keep in mind, there’s also the additional coaching you will provide each week via every interaction you have with each person on your team. As a benchmark, the top coaches (managers) in global sales organizations are coaching each person on their team about 7 hours per month in total.

I know, you’re doing the math now, trying to figure out how you’re going to find another 70 hours a month for coaching your team of ten people. You may be thinking, “Keith I don’t have the time for this? How am I supposed to fit coaching around all of my other responsibilities?” The real question you need to ask yourself and the shift each manager needs to make to truly make coaching the priority is this. “How can I fit all of my other responsibilities around my coaching?”

Frequency and consistency are key, just like when you exercise. The more time you spend exercising and the better you eat, the healthier you become. And that process becomes a lifestyle not a destination. Sure, you may have some goals you want to achieve along the way but you don’t get to a point and then say, “Okay, I’m done; I don’t need to eat healthy or exercise anymore!” The same rule applies to building and maintaining the health of your career and your team.

Ultimately, you’ll find part of the solution to uncovering how much coaching each person needs or wants by asking your staff how much additional support they need to reach their goals faster and how frequently they would like to meet with you. Other than a turnaround situation or an issue that needs immediate resolution, it’s up to you and each person on your team to find the balance and determine the frequency of ongoing coaching. This also includes scheduling coaching sessions with your top performers so that everyone on your team is getting coached.

Coaching sessions don’t have to be long to be effective, especially if you consider every conversation a coaching moment. Some coaching moments will be very short and some may take an hour or longer. Keep in mind, the length of the conversation is important to ensure that the person you are coaching gets the value they want and need from each coaching experience.

Regardless of the length of any coaching conversation, be mindful of this toxic trap that managers fall into. You don’t get points for ‘speed coaching.’ Rushing through a coaching conversation will do more damage than good and will lead to greater inefficiency, especially if you don’t take the time, have the patience and create the space for the person to be coached so that they can process the conversation at their pace and arrive at a solution on their own. The result? You’ll become frustrated, they’ll become discouraged and you will both be disenchanted about coaching. Consequently, this can lead to a further strain on the relationships you have with your direct reports and erode the trust you have with them which you may have worked very hard to build.

As you start coaching, you will be able to determine how long each scheduled session needs to be for each one of your people. You may even find that after coaching your team for a time, you may no longer need one full hour for each person and there’s the possibility that thirty minutes or so may be perfectly adequate. Furthermore, depending upon the productivity level of your team, I know some managers with high performing teams who have scheduled fifteen minute one to one coaching huddles (some daily and some weekly) as a way to maintain their team’s momentum and focus throughout each week.

However, what is just as important is the ongoing nature of the coaching process. Effective coaching must be regular and consistent. Coaching that starts and stops in fits of activity, need or urgency is not effective and leads to dips in performance. Coaching is a work-focused lifestyle choice that individuals and organizations make, rather than conditional or event based. And once made, the decision to coach has to be ongoing.

Managers must realize that every conversation is a coaching conversation, even when you have to address issues, handle problems, deal with reviews and so on, so informal coaching happens all the time. If there is an ongoing, balanced blend of informal coaching happening, formal coaching can easily be weekly and in some cases, biweekly and still be effective.

Regardless, one thing is for certain. Coaching never ever stops! After all, once you have the evidence and start experiencing the return on investment that you and your direct reports can realize through ongoing, effective coaching (healthier work culture, greater personal accountability, increased sales and productivity, improved retention of top performers, more career satisfaction, and so on) coaching will become like candy – you and your team will just keep wanting it more!

So, remember the A.B.C.’s of coaching and Always Be Coaching.

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Assumptions that Managers Make Which Fuel Mediocrity and Conceal Powerful Coaching Opportunities

Jul 15, 2010 Career Advice, Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, training for managers


If you’ve been following my blog and read my book on coaching, you may be asking yourself, “Okay, I get what coaching is, I realize that I need to upgrade not only what I do and how I coach but also how I need to think but wait; what, exactly, is actually coachable? Is everything coachable? Are some things ‘not coachable’?”

The short answer is, everything is coachable. Well, if that’s the case, then you may be wondering how you can recognize those powerful coaching moments and opportunities during a conversation. Here’s an experience I had that will begin to answer this question.

Monique, a director of sales for a large corporation came to me frustrated about the lack of execution and level of success around the new sales model she developed for her inside salespeople. During our coaching session, I asked Monique to share with me the steps she’s outlined in the new sales process that she wants her salespeople to follow. She did so, with great clarity, until I probed further around what she meant by her step three, the qualification process.

Monique responded by saying, “I want them to do a better job at qualifying every opportunity. I’m tired of my telesales reps filling their pipeline with customers and prospects who will never buy from us or are simply not a good fit.”

Of course, that made perfect sense to me. I then asked her what types of questions she wants her salespeople to ask when qualifying their customers and prospects. Being a top producer herself before moving into management, Monique took this opportunity to demonstrate her well developed skill at qualification.

After she did so, it was the next set of questions I asked that created the valuable coaching moment for her.

“Monique, those questions sound perfect, however, I’m curious. How much training did you provide your salespeople around asking these questions? Have you documented these questions so they can use them consistently when making their sales calls?”

Together, Monique and I identified the Gap, which is the space in every coaching conversation when you and the person you are coaching uncover with pinpoint accuracy the most relevant solution or exactly where you can deliver the most value that will foster breakthrough results. (You can read more about The Gap in one of my prior posts here. Coaching The Gap.)

For Monique, she made some costly assumptions about her salespeople’s level of comfort, skill, awareness and understanding when it came to asking the right qualifying questions. Monique took this a step further and created an additional coaching opportunity with her sales team during a team meeting by having them come up with the list of the top qualifying questions. This way, her team felt a deeper sense of ownership, since they were the ones developing these questions.

Not only will you get better at uncovering those coaching opportunities in the gap, but you may have already discovered that there is a big difference between training and coaching, and managers don’t often have a clear distinction between the two. As a result, when managers finally do uncover The Gap, they have a tendency to blend these two distinct solutions together, causing confusion in the minds of both the direct report, as well as the manager.

Managers must learn how to recognize when the right solution is training, coaching or a blended approach that may require both training as well as coaching. (You can read more about this distinction between coaching and training in some my prior posts here. Do I Coach Them Or Train Them, Part One, Part Two and Part Three.)

Whether you’re a manager, business owner or executive, I hope that you are beginning to realize the incredible power you can unleash through coaching– the power to transform the way you do business, develop your people and your career, as well as how you choose to live your life so that you can leave a lasting legacy that you’re proud of.

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Recognize Those Defining Moments To Transform Your Team Through Coaching

Jul 8, 2010 Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, training for managers


Marco, a manager who participated in one of my management coach training programs, shared this story with me two days after he competed this training, right after a coaching experience he had with one of his salespeople.

He told me he was at work, walking down the hallway towards his office. Miguel, one of his direct reports walked up to Marco and asked him if he could help with a problem he was having regarding one of his key accounts and moving this selling opportunity through his pipeline and towards the close. He needed to call this customer back later today and wasn’t sure how to drive the conversation forward.

Marco remembered what he learned from some of the coaching simulations that he did during the training and, instead of reacting by delivering a quick solution so that he can move ahead and get back to his office and all of the other pressing tasks he had on his plate for the day, he recognized this was one of his defining moments – a coaching opportunity. As such, he stopped, paused, and started asking Miguel some questions.

As a manager, what questions would YOU ask Miguel at this point?

Here were just a few coaching questions that Marco asked Miguel:

1.What is the specific outcome you’re looking for when you speak to this customer?
2.How do you envision accomplishing this?
3.Tell me what you’ve tried so far?
4.What are some other ideas you feel might work?
5.How have you handled something like this in the past?
6.Based on what we’ve just discussed, what’s going to be your strategy moving forward with this customer?

Marco told me that, at the end of this conversation, not only did Miguel come up with a solution on his own, one that he felt really good about, but it was a better solution than the one that Marco would have given him!

Miguel walked away from that conversation, with a greater sense of confidence, especially since he felt empowered by coming up with the best solution on his own. He also felt truly listened to and acknowledged, which strengthened the trust and relationship he has with his boss.

The added benefit that Marco reported on was, the very next day after his conversation with Miguel, Miguel informed Marco that he had another situation with a customer, similar to the one they discussed the day before. Because of the coaching Marco provided, Miguel reported that he was able to create the solution on his own without having to come to Marco about it!

Now, multiply the number of conversations you have like this, per day with every one of your direct reports. How much time do you think you’ll save so that you can focus on developing your people and your business, instead of continually running from one fire to the next?

Think about what we’ve achieved here. Think about your own management style. Now, think about the conversation that transpired between Marco, the manager and his salesperson.

This experience encapsulates many of the lessons when it comes to delivering masterful coaching. The coach’s mindset, such as being curious, being patient, being process driven; building trust, facilitating conversations through better questions and uncovering The Gap, tapping into people’s individuality and of course, the very essence of masterful coaching, abandoning your role as Chief Problem Solver.

Now that you have a deeper understanding of what great coaching looks and sounds like and the steps you can take to prepare yourself, as well as your team for coaching, start recognizing all the coaching opportunities you have in front of you.

Start challenging your current way of thinking and most important, start asking more and better coaching questions to further develop your team’s problem solving skills when you’re people come to you, looking for the answer.

Here’s a final tip from your coach: Realize that the best coaching moments aren’t always going to present themselves when it’s convenient for you, or during a scheduled coaching session.

That’s why I refer to these moments as defining moments. It’s your moment of truth, your moment to choose whether you react as you have in the past and continue to re-create the same results as before – or respond by taking a step back, and create the space for masterful coaching to occur.

Remember the A.B.C.’s of coaching. Always Be Coaching. In every conversation, in every interaction, allow coaching to become your new standard of thinking, communicating and how you engage your team.

To drive this point home, let me leave you with this final question.

How do you change a culture? How do you transform talent?

One person at a time. One conversation at a time.

The change starts with you. And that is great news because transforming the talent on your team really is all in your power.

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Management Behavior and Activities That Compromise Trust and Coaching – Part Two

Jul 6, 2010 How to Manage Your Team, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Sales Management, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, training for managers


In my last blog post, I shared a story about a management team that reinforced the fact that trust is the backbone of coaching.

Remember, trust and loyalty are earned, not inherited, so become mindful of those things that you need to stay away from that will erode the trust you need for your coaching to succeed and to foster a healthy, open coaching relationship from the start.

Here’s a short list of activities and behaviors that will erode the trust managers desperately need that will drive improved performance, loyalty, commitment and more sales.

What jumps out for you?

1.Not being present
2.Multitasking during conversation (You think you’re being efficient? That perceived efficiency comes at a major cost. Think of the message you’re sending to your people. “I guess I’m not that important.”
3.Not following through on commitments
4.Canceling (coaching) appointments
5.Violating/breaking your word. Not keeping your promise
6.Breaking confidence
7.Double talk
8.Threats and consequential negativity
9.Disposition. Tone. Being curt. Egocentric not showing your people are a priority (but an interruption or a bother.)
10.Being confrontational
11.Not showing patience (in a conversation or when coaching them)
12.Reacting negatively to something a person did wrong
13.The style of your management (pitchfork passive, pontificator, presumptuous, perfect, problem solving, proactive – See Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions for the 7 Types of Managers)
14.Not owning your own mistakes or your humanity (Your ego gets in the way)
15.Competition from manager
16.Not making the conversation/coaching safe
17.Not setting expectations in the coaching relationship
18.Not drawing a clear line between performance management/reviews and coaching

Tip from the Coach: What your people see and feel based on your actions always takes precedent over your intentions and what you say.

Tips and Questions For Managers When Setting Confidentiality in the Coaching Relationship

*What does confidentiality look like?

*What can you honor?

*Code of ethics – What nullifies confidentiality? (lie, cheat, steal, violate protocol and procedures, etc.)

*Establish how big, wide and deep the safe zone is up front

*You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game

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Is My Team Uncoachable? The Top Ten Reasons Why Coaching Fails When Managers Attempt to Coach Their Team

Jun 2, 2010 Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, training for managers


“I’ve tried coaching my team. It didn’t work.” Really? Was it the coaching that didn’t work, the manager’s coaching that didn’t work or was it more about how the coaching was delivered that didn’t work? As a manager, there are many things to consider when rolling out a coaching program for your team that will lead to a successful initiative, a mediocre one or a coaching program that will go down in flames.

Since my last book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions, I’ve been spending the majority of my time (every week!) delivering my management coach training programs for both domestic and global organizations. And the more I deliver my program, whether it’s to a team of sales managers who want to learn how to facilitate more effective sales coaching interactions with their salespeople that drives more sales or to a team of executives, VP’s and senior leaders who are in the position where they can provide a deeper layer of support by authentically coaching their management team, the more I find consistencies as to why coaching doesn’t work.

For any company wide coaching initiative to be effective and long-lasting within your organization, there are important obstacles that a manager or internal sales coach needs to address. Rather than do a deep dive into each of these 10 points, leverage this as more of a checklist for you to use before rolling out your coaching program.

If you’ve already attempted to coach your people and have experienced varying degrees of success, do not give up! This checklist can be used for you to diagnose where the breakdown is so that you can recalibrate your coaching efforts and overcome some of the obstacles that may have been outside of your line of vision.

The Top Ten Reasons Why Coaching Fails When Managers Attempt to Coach Their Team

1. Coaching In Your Own Image. “I’ve been doing this for 10 years. I already know the ‘right’ way to sell which has always worked for me. So if I were you, I would do it this way.” Note: Your building robots using this approach, not tapping into people’s individuality.

2. Poor Positioning. How did you set the expectations of coaching? “All the underperformers, please stand up! Here’s your chance to redeem yourself!” Ouch. This “Broken Wing Mentality” (Remedial Coaching) doesn’t create an atmosphere where everyone would want to be coached.

3. Past Experiences. “I’ve already tried to coach my people. It didn’t work.” Well, maybe it’s more about how you tried to enroll them in coaching that didn’t work. Every day, more and more statistics and surveys are showing the R.O.I. that good coaching generates. It’s time to do some self analysis and ask yourself what role you’re playing in this.

4. Inconsistent Coaching and Support. Sure, you may have been excited to coach your team but what message are you sending them when you cancel that coaching session you scheduled with them, regardless of how good a reason you had, your employee is thinking is “I guess I’m/the coaching isn’t a priority/important enough.”

5. No Training. The manager is not trained in coaching. It’s tougher than you think, especially around observation techniques and delivering actionable feedback that drives positive change and measurable results. This leads to two other challenges.

• Hollow Coaching. Focusing on the ‘what’ rather than going deeper to uncover the ‘why.’ Managers are good at uncovering what’s going on; you can see that by looking at a monthly activity report. Where managers drop the ball is uncovering why the behavior is going on or the actual reason behind the lack of activity. This often leads to something that many managers experience, which is:
• Repetitive Coaching. “Now we’ve already had this conversation five times over the last month. Looking at your activity the problem is you need to make more calls. So, make more calls! Call reluctance you say? Well, you just have to be more resilient.” Can you envision the salesperson walking out of that conversation with a powerful epiphany?

6. Event Based. The coaching is event based rather than culturally based to ensure long-term consistency. No coaching plan – no long term success.

7. The Manager Assumes They Have the Trust of Their Staff. This is a common challenge amongst many teams which breeds the resistance to coaching at the very core. Your experience as a manager is one thing that can inhibit your coaching effectiveness but what about your employee’s experience either with you or their prior manager? What if they had a prior experience that was less than favorable? Has this been addressed? Do your people really and truly trust you? How do you really know? Conversely, maybe the manager doesn’t really want to coach or doesn’t believe in coaching or maybe the manager doesn’t have the full authentic commitment to want to make their people more valuable and truly put them first. This is also felt by your team and will affect the level of trust you can foster.

8. The Manager is Coaching the Wrong People. “I only coach the underperformers and leave the top performers alone.” What a great strategy if you want to send the message that coaching is ONLY for the underperformers, while isolating your top performers. Then we wonder why we’re losing our good people. Everyone wants the attention of their manager but for different reasons and we need to align our coaching with where we can deliver the most value for them, individually.

9. Investing the Right Time With the Wrong Approach or Conversation. I can keep spending time pushing on a brick wall but that wall is never going to move. Just like I can say I’m investing the time coaching but am I truly coaching my people or am I simply doing what I did yesterday and relabeling it coaching? I can tell you that this is probably the biggest challenge I see amongst management teams today. That is, they think they’re coaching but they are not. The role plays and skill practice scenarios that I do during every training event continually support this to be true.

10. Toxic Management Style.
• Reactionary
• No patience. Here’s a tip – there’s no such thing as speed coaching. One of the most valuable parts of coaching is creating a safe place for your people to process and self reflect. You don’t always get that in a five minute interaction and if you rush the coaching process, you are only robbing you and your people of a powerful coaching experience. Remember, just because they don’t ‘get it’ as fast as you do or as fast as you think they should doesn’t make them wrong or less valuable. Honor and respect where each of your performers are regarding their own learning style and path of development.
• Misconceptions of what coaching is from both the manager and the salesperson. Time to even the playing field by uncovering each person’s perception of coaching, creating a universal definition of coaching and then setting the expectations on both sides.
• Managers not modeling it, walking their talk

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Learn How Enterprise Engagement is Changing Your Business

May 28, 2010 HR issues, How to Manage Your Team, Live Events, Videos, customer service, training for managers, webinar


June 3-4, Doral Arrowwood, Rye Brook, N.Y. (just 10 minutes from Westchester County Airport (HPN) in White Plains, N.Y.)

I’m pleased to offer you the opportunity to have a complimentary registration to the upcoming Enterprise Engagement Expo and Conference, June 3-4, 2010 which I am speaking at. Simply go to eeaexpo.org, and use the code PF2010 to register to get complimentary conference and exhibit area access. I’ll be speaking on the role of sales leaders in relation to fostering a deeper level of engagement with their people and meeting with clients and potential clients in a “conversation center” at the event where we’d be happy to meet with you as well! (I’ll be there on June 3 only.)

Understanding how to engage key customers, channel partners, employees and vendors provides a competitive edge for your business and a maybe even a potential boost to your career.

The Enterprise Engagement Alliance Networking Expo and Conference, June 3-4 at the Doral Arrowwood in Rye Brook, N.Y (near Westchester County Airport) offers a unique introduction to a proven path to business success critical to professionals seeking to improve the performance of their organizations and themselves.

The program is designed to help you learn from experts, peers, and leading suppliers about the emerging new of enterprise engagement and how you can profit from it.

• Translate theory into results from experts, colleagues, and top suppliers of engagement services in educational, roundtable, and one-on-one meetings.
• Get answers to questions and solutions to challenges—every education session is followed by a round-table discussion with the speakers and others with mutual interests, so bring your questions and challenges and a willingness to share answers.
• Learn about an emerging new field that crosses traditional lines between sales, marketing, human resources, and financial management;
• Gain new insights into the role of leadership training, polls and surveys, communications (social networking, promotional products, face-to-face); measurement; rewards and recognition, customer loyalty, and more;
• Make yourself more effective as a leader by understanding the emerging field of enterprise engagement;
• Make contacts with people and resources who can help make it happen for your organizations.

Discover the emerging business of engagement on us.

Click here for a complete program agenda and to register. Be sure to use code PF2010 to take advantage of this complimentary offer.

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VIDEO: Fatal Coaching Mistake. Managers, Share Ideas, Not Expectations

Mar 12, 2010 Executive Coaching, Videos, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, training for managers


It is a fact that if you’re a boss, manager, or executive responsible for managing people, you are their superior. And, therefore, you have a certain degree of influence over how your staff feels about certain things.

Managers and executives have the power to shut down a conversation or open up a dialogue. Quite often, they don’t realize how much of an influence they have over their staff and how influential they can be without even trying. When a manager takes a strong stand or position and makes a statement like, “Here’s the solution” or “Here’s how it is,” it removes any opportunity for others to contribute a different and potentially better idea.

There’s a difference between sharing an opinion or idea and sharing an expectation. It’s one thing if the manager or boss shares an opinion that allows the dialogue and flow of the conversation to continue moving in a positive, collaborative direction. It’s entirely different when the manager shares an expectation with a strong agenda or ultimatum behind it.

An opinion or idea from the boss opens up further conversation. An expectation shuts it down.

In this video, I discuss this approach managers can take so that you will be more likely to get a response that encourages unfiltered collaboration and multiple contributions.

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Why Managers Don’t Ask Better Coaching Questions – Stop Coaching In Your Own Image

Mar 12, 2010 Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, management articles, training for managers


A few posts ago, someone posted a fair and relevant question which I thought was important enough to re-post front and center.

It was in reference this post: Coaching Questions Part 3 – Questions To Get People into Action That Drive Desired Results, which you can read here.

Here is her question and my response follows.

“Keith- I’m a huge fan of yours, let me say that first so you don’t get mad at me, but every single one of those questions above 1-12 would infuriate me if I ever had my vp of sales ask any of them. And I would feel dumb asking my reps too! I don’t get it.”

The truth be known, many managers don’t get it – at least not initially; until the blind spot is exposed and placed in their line of vision for them to see. And please keep in mind, their inability to see this blind spot has nothing to do with their acumen, experience, abilities, commitment to their team or intelligence and everything to do with one of the common traps that management has tendency to fall into which is due to the fact that coaching is often counterintuitive.

Here was my response:

Thanks for the comment! Much appreciated. Why would I get mad? Keep your comments coming! I don’t expect everyone to agree with everything I write. Besides, if I post stuff that everyone agrees with, then I’m not doing my job! Just like I told a client today; “If you plan on doing what you did yesterday, aren’t open to challenging your current way of thinking and are able to see every blind spot on your own which is getting in the way of better performance (you can’t self diagnose when you’re in the middle of the game), then what do you need me for?”

Back to your question. I was very mindful when posting these questions that they may not work for everyone and are distinctly positioned for specific situations. As I wrote in this post, “Remember, treat these questions like a buffet. So, take what you like and leave what you don’t. Depending upon your situation and the individual you’re coaching, every question may not work for everyone. Conversely, since we all looking for new and better results, take some of these questions out for a test drive, as you may not know how effective they are until you try them out.”

So, who are these questions for? Well, probably not for your top performer or the person who’s self driven and accountable. These questions are for the salesperson who may be stuck, either in follow through, in their own story and excuses or in taking the necessary actions to better their performance. For the manager, getting on your soapbox and preaching what needs to be done gets old fast and doesn’t work for the long haul.

Which is the point of these questions. So often, managers see the problem, see what needs to change in order to fix the problem and as such, get into the tell mode of dumping the solution on their people. Conversely, these questions find the gap, or what is missing either in the person’s thinking, skills or resources and deepens the level of accountability that every manger is looking to instill, preventing the salesperson from using more creative excuses to justify their performance!

I’m guessing that you personally, (I don’t like to make assumptions) don’t fall into the category of the underperformer? So yes, in that case, these questions certainly would not fit for you.

Conversely, be mindful that, just because they don’t fit for you, doesn’t mean they won’t fit for anyone or for another person on your team. After all, just like in selling, you don’t want to sell the way you buy, that is, instilling your values and decision making process on the customer, assuming they think and process information the same way you do. You also don’t want to coach the way you like to be coached, because then you’re essentially coaching in your own image (building robots vs. respecting each person’s individuality and where they’re at).

Look at the spirit behind each question. I have hundreds of coaching questions that I use, and it’s not only about having the right questions, but when to use them and with whom that makes the difference.

Does this make more sense now? Let me know!

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VIDEO: How To Leverage The Power Of Fear to Become Unstoppable

Mar 5, 2010 Career Advice, Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Sales Coaching, Videos, accountability, career coaching, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, cold calling, training for managers


Do you allow fear to paralyze you or have you made fear your greatest ally? Does fear hold you hostage, preventing you from being more of who you are and what you want to achieve? Have you ever been in a position of action, yet felt powerless to take those steps you need to take to live your greatness, achieve better results or make the best choice because fear had it’s grip over you?

Are you driven by what you want most; your dreams, goals and passions – or are you fueled by fear, consequence and what you worry may happen or occur in the worst case scenario?

How do you manage fear? Do you embrace it or resist it?

In this video, discover how you can leverage fear and make it your greatest teacher so that you can become unstoppable.

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Coaching Questions Part 5 – Questions To Challenge People and Bring Out Their Best

Feb 18, 2010 Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, training for managers


These questions are formulated to stretch a person to reach their fullest potential. They challenge someone directly, yet supportively and positively, to achieve more and do better than they have before.

Remember, treat these questions like a buffet – take what you like and leave what you don’t. Depending upon your situation and the individual you’re coaching, all questions don’t work for everyone, which is why you have a list to choose from. Keep in mind, you can always use these questions for some self-coaching to challenge yourself and increase your level of awareness.

1-If you could no longer use that as an excuse, what would another solution look like? (What would you need to change or do differently to achieve better results?)
2-(When the person says, ‘‘I can’t.’’) Okay, but if you could, how would you do it?
3-(When the person says, ‘‘I don’t know.’’) Okay, but if you did know, what would it look like?
4-What would doubling your effectiveness look like?
5-What could you do that would be uncomfortable for you but would cause a breakthrough and move you forward?
6-What would be easy for you to do this week? What would be a stretch for you? (You can’t stretch or challenge people until you know what would be fairly easy for them to accomplish during the course of a normal week.)
7-What is one thing you could do this week that would clearly demonstrate your commitment to your goal? (Look for evidence.)
8-What would be something you would consider challenging that you could do which would double your productivity?
9-When did you decide that was true? What else is possible/true?

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